Ourshelves

What does friendship mean to you?

In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, creators of the hit podcast; Call Your Girlfriend. In this episode Lucy, Ann and Aminatou talk about fighting for a radically different future, the comfort of being read to and the sex scenes in Normal People.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How much courage does it take to write?

In this episode of OurShelves Lucy Scholes interviews Lennie Goodings, Chair of Virago Press and author of A Bite of the Apple. We dive into stories about Maya Angelou and Rosamond Lehmann, the origins of Virago Press in the seventies, the narratives that shape our lives and the authors who continue to inspire Lennie's work and personal life.

Join us for a conversation about courageous women, beautiful prose and the nature of storytelling.

Books discussed in this episode include:

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Home by Marilynne Robinson

Jack by Marilynne Robinson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison

We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think by Shirley Hazzard

Difficult Women by Helen Lewis

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen

Recommended Article: 

That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief by Scott Berinato

Home - an essay from Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison

What to watch: 

Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things

Tune in next time for more conversation about books, feminism and culture.

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Join us as we celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month!

This month Virago editor, Rose Tomaszewska, is joined by Eleanor Crewes, author of The Times I Knew I Was Gay. Tune in for a wonderful discussion around their favourite books by queer authors or that deal with queer themes, including Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Sarah Waters and more...

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Ahead of our second Virago Speakeasy, we are delighted to share a live recording of our inaugural Speakeasy event at Pages Cheshire Street: On Witches.

At this event Virago editor Rose Tomaszewska chatted to Shahrukh Husain, author of The Virago Book of Witches, and Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock about the transgressive place of witches in literature, society, history and contemporary politics. Listen to the end for a chilling reading from The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Virago Modern Classics editor Donna Coonan.

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In this episode of the Virago podcast editor Ailah Ahmed talks to Lennie Goodings about her book A Bite of the Apple - part memoir, part history of Virago Press and part thoughts on more than forty years of feminist publishing.

Tune-in for Lennie Goodings, stay for the stories about Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood and a life in publishing.

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Get inspired for 2020 with some reading recommendations from the Virago team.

A few members of the Virago team got together to discuss our reading recommendations and resolutions for the new decade! With titles like Big Friendship, The Street and How Much of These Hills is Gold, among others, our TBR stacks are growing ever taller.

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In honour of Equal Pay Day 2019, we welcome Carrie Gracie to the podcast. In this episode Carrie discusses her experience fighting for equal pay and her book, Equal, with Chair of Virago Press, Lennie Goodings.

In January 2018, Gracie left her post as the BBC's China editor, following a career at the BBC that spanned more than three decades, in protest at unequal pay, publishing an open letter to BBC audiences and giving evidence before a parliamentary committee. Six months later, she won an apology from the BBC. She donated all her back pay to the gender equality charity, the Fawcett Society, to help low-paid women facing pay discrimination. She continues to serve as a BBC News presenter, and as a member of the 'BBC Women' group, she campaigns for a more equal, fair and transparent pay structure at the national broadcaster.

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Take a ride atop the Number 12 bus with national treasure, Sandi Toksvig.

In this episode Chair of Virago Press Lennie Goodings chats with the one and only Sandi Toksvig about her long-awaited memoir, Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus. Well known for her television and radio work as a broadcaster, writer, activist and comic on stage, screen and radio, Sandi Toksvig also writes for theatre and television: her film The Man starred Stephen Fry and Zoe Wanamaker and her play Bully Boy starring Anthony Andrews opened the St James Theatre in 2012. In 2016 Sandi took over as chair on QI and in 2017 she started presenting The Great British Bake Off.

Between the Stops is A funny and moving trip through memories, musings and the many delights on the Number 12 route, Between the Stops is also an inspiration to us all to get off our phones, look up and to talk to each other because as Sandi says: 'some of the greatest trips lie on our own doorstep'.

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In this episode Julia Bueno and Sarah Savitt discuss miscarriage, women's health and Julia's book The Brink of Being: Talking about Miscarriage.

A captivating mixture of memoir, stories from the consulting room, history and science, The Brink of Being is a much-needed, comprehensive look at the common yet still taboo experience of miscarriage.

'A much needed book on this difficult and often unspoken loss, that of early pregnancy ... both illuminating and consoling.' Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works

It estimated that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage and yet it persists as taboo. In The Brink of Being, a groundbreaking and essential book, psychotherapist Julia Bueno encourages us to talk about, think more, and reflect upon this often misunderstood, and little discussed event. 

Drawing on her personal experience of miscarriage, stories from her consulting room, and interviews with medical professionals and researchers, Bueno provides history, context and consolation for anyone who has been through pregnancy loss, or wants to know how to help someone who has. 

Bueno also investigates miscarriage in terms of how we respond to women's bodies and reproductive health, our attitudes to birth and death, and how we can - and should - encourage more curiosity and candid conversations, in order to better support the many affected by this loss.

Books recommended in this podcast:

Miscarriage: What every Woman needs to know by Professor Lesley Regan

Coming to Term: Uncovering the Truth About Miscarriage by John Cohen

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy

The World's Two Smallest Humans by Julia Copus

Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir by Hilary Mantel

What Mothers Do and How Mothers Love by Naomi Stadland

For more from Julia visit her website: http://www.juliabueno.co.uk/ or follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JBueno_UKCP and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julia_bueno_therapist/?hl=en

To find out more about the Miscarriage Association here: https://www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjeKFr4D94wIVCbTtCh3TvA94EAAYASAAEgKwpfD_BwE

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